Poor seeking charity’s help soars by 60%

CALLS seeking help from St Vincent de Paul have soared by over 60% in the past year and more than a quarter of a million households are receiving assistance from the charity.

There are also 70,000 Irish children in consistent poverty and almost 300,000 children live in a household with a total income of less than €300 a week.

The society’s vice-president, Professor John Monaghan, said that figure represented “70,000 children without a warm meal every day or a second pair of shoes”.

Helpline appeals in the past two years have risen by over 200% and the level of chronic poverty has also risen sharply, a society spokesman said.

The greatest increase in people seeking assistance has been among those working in low-paid jobs.

“Their jobs are so badly paid that they cannot make ends meet and have now become the working poor,” said the spokesman.

Launching the society’s pre-budget submission, Prof Monaghan said there seemed to be growing disbelief poverty still existed in Ireland. But, despite the nation’s affluence, the number of people unable to make ends meet was growing.

“In the past three years the number of calls has risen almost 300%. From January to October 2002 the level was 4,000; it was 7,000 in 2003 and 12,000 for the same period this year.”

Prof Monaghan said the number of people in permanent debt had also risen sharply.

“We used to find an increase in calls coming up to Christmas but now it is an all-year round phenomenon.”

The society wants Government action in four areas in the budget: income adequacy, social housing, education and health.

It wants the minimum adult social welfare rate to be increased by €20 to €154.80 per week and the Old Age Non-Contributory Pension raised by €14 to €168. It is also seeking an increase in child benefit and family support and removal of those on minimum wage from the tax net.

Last year the society spent €30 million in assistance and it is spending €1.4m every month helping with basic necessities like food, clothing and heating.

“We are one of the wealthiest countries on earth and while we have seen increases in pay and tax reductions, but social welfare and pension rates have not kept pace.

“We are now the most expensive country in the eurozone for basic food stuffs and yet we expect people to exist on less than €200 a week.”

The budget submission would cost in the region of €4 billion, almost half of which would be required for a proper social housing programme.